DOH won’t share Dengvaxia masterlist with PAO

MANILA –The Department of Health (DOH) will not be sharing the Dengvaxia masterlist containing the names of children who have been vaccinated with the dengue vaccine to the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) any time soon.

This after DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III opted to follow the opinion of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to keep to themselves the list of childen given Dengvaxia shots.

In getting the opinion on the matter, Duque said NPC has cited a provision of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, which states that a public office should not disclose any information to another government agency or a private entity without the consent of the subject of the information.

However, the DOH chief said that in case that they will be directed through a writ by a government agency or a court to provide or share the information, then they will comply.

“If they give us a subpoena, we will share them because that is our only protection against lawsuits,”said Duque.

The PAO has been pressing the DOH for a copy of the Dengvaxia masterlist.

NPC earlier advised the DOH to be circumspect in sharing sensitive personal information of individuals, saying it should only do so if it deems that such sharing or disclosure is authorized under law, or adheres to data privacy principles, and there are reasonable and appropriate security measures in place to protect the data. (Leilani Junio/PNA)